WEC 208: Pasture Management for Bobwhite Quail

Figure 3. In the absence of other land management practices (for example, prescribed burning of shrubs), increases in grazing intensity have relatively predictable effects on plant communities—decreasers such as chalky bluestem and lopsided Indiangrass decline in abundance; increasers such as broomsedge, many “weeds,” and wiregrass at first increase and then decline in abundance; and invaders such as saw palmetto continually increase in abundance. Moderate grazing intensities tend to lead to a mixture of plant types, providing for all of the bobwhite's habitat needs (nesting, foraging, and escape cover) and good-fair forage conditions for cows.